Season of Freedom

Jewish people around the world are preparing for Passover. Over two-thirds (67-68%) of American Jews will
attend a seder. Family and friends will gather in their homes to retell and relive the Exodus from Egypt. That story of Hebrew slaves being liberated from bondage, redeemed from a God who demands justice and righteousness of all people, is the great message of Judaism. It is our essential story and gift to the world.

The Passover story teaches the world that God is deeply concerned with the affairs of humanity, that freedom is the fundamental right of every person, and that redemption and transformation of our world is possible. Fundamentally, this is what we relive at every Passover seder, and what we retell at every Passover meal. Is it any wonder, then, that our tradition decrees that we tell this story year after year, from one generation to the next?

Such a story can only be told and experienced in the springtime, moreover, when the very earth itself can take part in the drama. Nature is redeemed from the bondage of winter along with the Jewish slaves from Egypt. God causes the earth to flower once again as surely as God helps a people to live once again. Nature is transformed in a panoply of vibrant growth and flourish just as a people is transformed—and a world can be—by the light of goodness, compassion and justice.

Passover is truly, in the words of the Jewish tradition, “the season of our freedom.” It is our perennial holy day.